Open Thread WE 21 DEC 22 ~ solstice

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 5:00am

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“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” — John Burroughs

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The Romans had, like other Pagan nations, a nature festival, called by them Saturnalia, and the Northern peoples had Yule; both celebrated the turn of the year from the death of winter to the life of spring - the winter solstice. As this was an auspicious change the festival was a very joyous one... The giving of presents and the burning of candles characterized it. Among the Northern people the lighting of a huge log in the houses of the great and with appropriate ceremonies was a feature.
Samuel L. Jackson

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Re: the Poinsettia .. h/t enhydra lutris

The Mexicas (Aztecs) called the plant by its Nahuatl name cuetlaxochitl.

In English, cuetlaxochitl means “mortal flower that perishes and withers like all that is pure.” Because it only blooms during the winter solstice, it is a rare and beautiful sign of the approaching spring, a new year, and a new cycle of life.

Community members decorated their temples with the cuetlaxochitl as an offering to help reignite the light of Mother Earth. This was done during winter solstice on the birthday of Huitzilopochtli, the god of sun and war, who often takes the form of a hummingbird.

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"Hummingbird of the South"
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Credits ~

Pouring a Thermos of Hot Tea at -40°C Near the Arctic Circle by Michael Davies
https://www.flickr.com/people/michaelhdavies/
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Yellowknife Flurry and Ice Queen by Nathan Myhrvold
https://www.nathanmyhrvold.com/index.php/travel/essay/snowflakes

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Open thread, so share your wisdoms, however inspired.
Peace

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Submitted by ovals49 on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 6:21am

The Gregorian calendar, and the Julian before it, are out of sync with the winter solstice, which seems to me a more sensible day to mark the beginning of our next wobbly lap around the Sun, the source of that which sustains all life on this odd planetary anomaly we call Earth.

I’m with the Poinsettias.

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“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 7:49am

Not sure the calendar makers were "with it" whenever they drew-up the time maps.
I agree the solstice makes more sense as a new beginning. Perhaps the time scholars
were more keen to avoid pagan rituals?

Enjoy your Yule log!

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Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 8:14am

Now, how to bring awareness up to a viable policy response ???

After Halting Rapid Rise in Homelessness, Biden-Harris Administration Announces Plan to Reduce Homelessness 25% by 2025

weak tea

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/12/19/biden-harris-administration-an...

In January 2020 , there were 580,466 people experiencing homelessness on our streets and in shelters in America.

Not sure of the veracity of this number.

https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statist...

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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 9:08am
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@QMS

into tomorrow is forecast to be -12degF in Denver: so no doubt there will be more deceased homeless persons to memorialize by then.

We have to spend squander our national treasure killing people elsewhere on the planet. Here, people are just going to have to do their dying on their own damn dime.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 9:34am

@usefewersyllables

A proposal .. for every dollar the pentagon gets for making war toys
an equal dollar is given to HHS, which would cut the war budget in half.
Then, for every dollar given to the alphabet spy agencies, a buck would
be given to HUD, slicing their funds in half. That would probably end
homelessness, poverty and hunger in the greediest nation on earth.
Cut subsidies to big AG, big Pharma and big oil, and we could maybe
catch-up with China's infrastructure improvements.
Next, cut private prison budgets by re-investing their excess into
training, and we might have some hope of rehabilitating those in need.
One can dream ..

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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 9:52am
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@QMS

Great suggestion. It really is going to take a "great dying" to make Joe and Mary Sixpack understand that our entire national priority structure is, and has always been, completely wrong.

I had a very rightwing acquaintance completely blow off any concerns for the homeless with the usual MAGA "Serves 'em right, they should have gotten a job, blah blah blah" dismissal rant. I just had to turn on my heel and walk away. We're all one missed paycheck/cancer diagnosis/house fire/credit card fraud away from being among "those people". But folks who have drunk the exceptionalism Kool-Aid will never get it.

The willingness of many people to simply dehumanize huge swaths of the human race boggles my mind. It can happen here, and it most assuredly is happening here. But as long as there's still someone downslope from you that you can shit on, the Amurkin way is to shit *hard* and laugh about it while you can.

Grab them bootstraps, Sunshine- entropy is going to win, and it won't be pleasant. We will all be "those people", soon enough.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 12:34pm
snoopydawg's picture

@usefewersyllables

streets have jobs but don’t make enough to afford housing and many of them went to college and are now stuck with humongous student debt. Other cop outs for having no compassion for the homeless is that they like to take drugs or alcohol and could get off them if they wanted to.

We could have made a huge dent in the homeless with all the money congress is sending to Ukraine. Another $1.85 billion today, another $45 billion yesterday for weapons that Russia keeps destroying.

How are so many people so blind that they can’t see that our obscene military budgets are sanctions against we the people? Many of us have to live in poverty so a few can get filthy rich off kickbacks and bribes from defense and other industries. Now those same people have taken it globally and lots of people in Europe are going to freeze to death this winter. Biden is sending so much of our natural gas to Europe places here can’t get it or have to pay too high prices for it….I’ll stop here, but….

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by ggersh on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 9:28am
ggersh's picture

@QMS the white stuff Thursday into Friday with plummeting temps
following. The temps will get down to -5 and will stay in the
single digits for a couple of days but by next Friday it's meant
to be up to 50....everything is so upside down

People need to get out of the bathtub

Also I have a follow up to me post about the two ladies in Wetumpka getting arrested
for helping the city get rid of feral cats. You aren't going to believe it but they
were found guilty.....UFB

https://www.alreporter.com/2022/12/15/opinion-wetumpka-cat-ladies-were-c...

est easy, Wetumpka, the cat ladies have been brought to justice. 

Mary Alston, 61, and 85-year-old Beverly Roberts – two hardened and desperate criminals – were convicted Wednesday in Wetumpka municipal court by Judge Jeff Courtney, who found the pair guilty on four charges of trespassing, interfering with governmental operations and disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors. 

They were feeding and trapping feral cats. 

Stay out of Wetumpka LO, is this somewhere in your neck of the woods?

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Lookout on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 10:00am
Lookout's picture

@ggersh

home of Alabama's astrobleme (eroded crater). It is down near Montgomery, a 3.5 hour drive from here.

Stupid is as stupid does.

@QMS

Happy solstice everyone! It is the first day of winter starting at about 4:30 central time. We're headed to single digits Friday and over the weekend. Coldest Christmas here in decades.

So welcome to winter...brrr! We're going to harvest most of the garden today and tomorrow. The few cabbages and kale we're going to try to nurse through will be covered with a row cover, then mulched with straw over that, and then covered in black plastic. I'll let you know if we're successful.

Happy yule, y'all!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 12:39pm
snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

That comes with bigger fines and sometimes jail time.

Wtf were the people on that jury thinking? Has no one ever heard about jury nullification? I guess it’s better for the city to hire people to gather the cats and for the animal shelter to kill them instead of neutering them and finding them good homes.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by ggersh on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 1:24pm
ggersh's picture

@snoopydawg there was no jury involved. That this even
happened just goes to show how bad this shithole of
a country has become.

$105bil for Ukraine with more coming today as the Nazi
goes before Clowngress. $44bil mentioned for Africa, $4bil
for Israel the apartheid(which automatically makes this Jew
anti-semitic) $11bil for Taiwan, but nothing for RR workers
nothing for M4A, nothing for homeless, nothing for ordinary
americans.

The govt of by for the people is one huge tragedy!!

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7 users have voted.
—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 10:51am

had an excellent photographer pal nearby, didn't he?
We have a fun holiday planned. Nothing elaborate, and for once, it is close. We won't experience a price gouge for fuel in very touristy Galveston.
We had an odd experience on our last trip. We were in a condo, preparing our meals, avoiding restaurants. It took us two trips to the grocery store to locate a loaf of bread! This trip, we will shop locally, take the food with us.
Hope you are fully recovered, Q.
Thanks for the OT.
Oh! I think the homeless should camp out in state capitols. Maybe the governor's mansions and The White House. It is sure to be warm inside.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 2:06pm

@on the cusp

ie: state & federal buildings
do not allow the people to visit off hours. Similar to the signs posted on state and
federal lands *do not trespass*. What makes the state have exclusive ownership
of said buildings and lands? Government property is paid for by 'we the people'.
Therefore, we own it. This is not private property, IMO. If the homeless need a place
to camp out, what contorted laws determine we can't? Eminent disdain for the poor?

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Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 10:52am

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Submitted by MrWebster on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 11:28am

In my college class on the New Testament, my prof (ordained minister) claimed that in a PR move by Christians, they claimed the birth of their Savior as Dec. 25. This is also the birthday of Mithra the god most worshipped by Roman soldiers. Christians and Roman soldiers together.

So thank you guys in cute short red skirts and sharp swords for this holiday season.

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Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 12:09pm

Edited to add this:

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Submitted by QMS on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 2:41pm

@humphrey

and shake up the zombie congress critters
this would be a good opportunity!
like hey, how does this Ukrainian clown
deserve our national treasures when WE can't
afford to heat and eat, get affordable healthcare or shelter ...
and the grifter wants more! It is beyond time for this circus act
to end. The new American insecurities act brought to you by
Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing and directed by the Central Ignorance Agency.
Talk about rubbing our faces in the feces.

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Submitted by soryang on Wed, 12/21/2022 - 2:26pm
soryang's picture

of foreign relations would necessarily need to place the US in the context of imperialism generally. The free pdf (book) link that Humphrey posted yesterday, Patriots, Traitors and Empire, by Stephen Gowans, makes an interesting point concerning the mechanism by which people of the "homeland" are unable to understand their world.

...According to David Vine, the “United States probably has more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.”8 Such a nation could deny that it has built an empire, but to do so would require the construction of a special reality, a folie en masse, or the creation of something tantamount to the “epistemology of ignorance” Charles Mills argued was necessary, to fail to see that the “liberal” political system of the Western world is, and has always been, white supremacist (i.e., illiberal.)9

Mills’ view, while related to liberalism and race, also illuminates the divergence between the idea of the equality of nations, codified in the United Nations Charter, and the reality of imperialism. The “officially sanctioned reality is divergent from actual reality.” Therefore, one “has to learn to see the world wrongly, but with the assurance that this set of mistaken perceptions will be
validated by” the official “epistemic authority,”10 namely, corporate-funded think-tanks, corporate-endowed universities, corporate-owned mass media, and corporate-dominated governments. Thus, on matters related to foreign relations, the official ideology prescribes an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance, which produces the ironic outcome that the denizens of imperialist countries will in general be unable to understand the world their countries have made.11

This is from a David Kang article, Still Getting Asia Wrong, No "Contain China" Coalition Exists:

East Asian states certainly have residual issues with China to contend with,
such as maritime disputes in the South and East China Seas, and countries in
the region are working toward that end. Yet, the evidence clearly shows that
the US military is not the best or first way East Asian states are seeking to
achieve those ends. Countries are looking for diplomatic solutions, not military
ones. If the US plans a containment coalition against China, there is little evidence that any East Asian country will join it. Combined with the lack of a coherent American economic or diplomatic strategy for the region from Republican or Democratic presidential administrations alike, this is evidence of the US’ illusory views of itself and of the world, and of an almost stubborn unwillingness by the US policymaking elite to update their theoretical views of East Asia to present realities. It is far past time for that update to take place.

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/dist/1/2181/files/2022/12/Ka...

Japan's new security policy has "unified" support in U.S., says envoy (Amb. Rahm Emmanuel)

This reminds me of the phrase "unleash Chiang Kai-shek."

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/12/822aaa0010d8-japans-new-secur...

U.S. sends B-52 bombers, F-22 fighters for joint drills with South Korea -News1
Reuters Dec. 20

These exercises basically in East China Sea southwest of Cheju island. The F-22s landed at Kunsan AFB in South Korea. The B-52s stopped over first at Kadena in Japan. VOA described the B-52s as "nuclear capable."

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-b-52s-fly-near-south-korea-as-north-korea-r...

In their new defense "counterstrike" offensive policy papers, Japan affirmed that the South Korean Dokdo isles in the middle of the East Sea/Sea of Japan were Japanese territory. I heard objections from some South Korean democratic National Assembly members (one a former 4 star Deputy CFC commander) yesterday, who also objected to Japan's new offensive "counterstrike" strategy. Haven't heard the Yoon administration say a word about it. One of the opposition Assembly members questioned the decision process by which Japan might decide to attack North Korea, and asserted that it was represented a potential threat to South Korean security. Initially the phrase "preemptive strike" was used in the policy discussion in Japan, but lately the term had been dropped in favor of "counterstrike." The notion of a US "preemptive strike" on North Korea has been widely discussed in South Korean media in the past, and they are well aware of what it entails when someone says counterstrike with conventional weapons, preemptive counterstrike is what they mean. South Korea's President Yoon has openly endorsed the idea of a "preemptive counterstrike" in past public statements.

North Korea ready to prove ICBM progress by firing at normal trajectory, Kim’s sister claims
CNN Dec 20
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/asia/north-korea-icbm-missile-test-plans-...

There is a lot of potential here for miscalculation.

Source- 출처=교수신문
출처 : 아틀라스뉴스(http://www.atlasnews.co.kr)www.atlasnews.co.kr
This is the South Korean selection for four character idiom of the year for 2022. Seeing a mistake (disaster) and not fixing it. The second most popular idiom was when you try to cover up something, the more it comes into view ( 慾蓋彌彰 ).

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